Salvation

Philippians 1:18-20 What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. 

‘What then?’ Paul claims here that it mattered not to him how Christ was preached, provided He was preached. The apostles were commanded to get the Word of Christ out, as long as they stayed away from fiction (1Tim. 1:4; 4:7; 2Tim. 4:4; Tit. 1:14) and focus on what He taught (Matthew chapters 5-24) and the examples that He set (1Pet. 2:21-23).

‘Pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached.’ The Jews served God with pretence, but He was still preached whether they accepted Him or not. In John 15: 22 Christ stated that if He had not come and proved to them beyond doubt that He was the Messiah they would not have had the sin of rejecting Him, but now they have no excuse for this sin. They wilfully hated both Jesus and God the Father (John 15:22-24).

‘Salvation’ [Greek: soteria] deliverance. This refers to his temporal safety and freedom from chains and imprisonment. This he expected through their prayer and the continued supply of the Holy Spirit.

‘Earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.’ He had the utmost confidence in God that he would be upheld by grace in all his trials. He was ready for either life or death, providing Christ would be magnified in the outcome.